The report contains 16 recommendations, but stops short of calling on the federal government to launch a national public inquiry into missing and murdered women.

Ashton, the NDP's Opposition's Status of Women critic, said families who have lost their loved ones and people who work in indigenous communities have long called for federal action, and the report is a disservice to them.

"This report is deficient in every way," she said. "This report does not call for national action. It does not call for a co-ordinated national action plan to end violence against indigenous women."

Ashton said it's an issue that hits close to home.

"This isn't just a Manitoba issue, this is a Canadian issue," she said. "It touches all of us and that's why we need the federal government to act."

She called on Manitobans, especially those who helped elect the Conservative government, to tell their MPs how they feel.

"I would hope that here in Manitoba, in particular, where this issue has affected us so closely, Manitobans will demand better of Manitoba Conservative members of Parliament who have the power to say, 'You know what? We can do better.'"

Families react with disbelief

The committee's report left families of women who have gone missing or been found murdered shaking their heads.

"It's really a slap in the face to us," said Bernadette Smith, whose sister, Claudette Osborne, went missing in July 2008.